Supporting > Casting

Using oxygen for an air supply

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fidlstyks:
While at the gas engine show at Zolfo Springs Fla I met a man who also made castings. He stated that he used an oxygen bottle for an air supply rather than a blower. I thought this sounded inferior and expensive.
     But I always wondered how it worked. There was a time my blower had quit where I had a full pot of iron melted, but not hot enough to pour. So by the time I got another blower aranged, it had froze up. Most foundry men know that once the iron is cold, it would expand upon reheating, cracking the crucible . So I lost a new crucible.
   So I got this bright idea to try and have a backup air supply. So first I tried using air from my 5 hp compressor . It just did not have the air to even melt aluminum.
   So then I took my torch and arranged it in place of the blower. This I am sure could work, but not as I had it set up. Oxygen is too pure for an old set up. I think if you never used anything else, it would work.

mcostello:
The flame might be too concentrated and intense, might work with fine tuning, might spectacularly be intense. Let Me know Your direction and time and I will look for the glow  in the sky just in case. ;)

Myrickman:
Just thinking out loud but if you had molten iron and inserted an oxygen lance, wouldn't it self heat for a while a la a basic oxygen furnace? Of course it may reduce the carbon content...or make a hideous mess...

fidlstyks:
I was busy earlier and could not finish my writing.
One thing that happened, as I see it , we have all seen the signs "no smoking oxygen in use". They say oxygen does not burn, but it can make a flame of a blade of grass. I burn propane and some times diesel fuel or kerosene . I looked down the blow pipe and it is mildly littered with bits and oily like black, like lamp black from a kerosene light . So what I surmise happened was when I packed my Victor torch handle in the end of the blow pipe where the blower was, and cranked the pressure to 80#  the oxygen made all of those particles burn.It nearly blew my thumb off and was hard on my hearing.
     It did go out and there was a short build up of raw gas first . But I have been doing this since 1980. Something went boom more than ever.
   Look at what it did to the base block. Like dynamite it split it in 3 pieces and cracked the furnace all over. It never blew like that before. It must have filled up more raw gas without burning longer than I thought. But when it blew out the end of the pipe I was sure it the carbon buildup everywhere inside, as it blew out little burning bits and of white fire. Very hot.
   No I am not done till I light the sky up. I am going to make a short blow pipe and make sure that there is no carbon style half burnt fuel in it or on the furnace walls.
    The people at the welding shop always said that if you put oil in your torch and turn up the pressure it will ignite and blow you up. So maybe this is just not a good idea. Was just trying to run it with out electric was my interest . Blowing my furnace apart was a drawback I can deal with. And my hand is only a little sore. And I already do not hear well.
    Around a cupola if the spout freezes up they use a black steel pipe hooked directly to the oxygen regulator and lite it to burning by sticking it in the molten metal. The pipe burns like a torch and cuts through the cold metal.
  Yes I now  think that the oxy would burn out the carbon in the iron.
   I think I will shelve this idea and build a gas engine powered blower .
  Don't look like I can add pictures today.

crueby:
This all sounds like a Mythbusters episode, minus the C4. Just don't play the part of buster!

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